Before I left to go on vacation I got a phone call asking me if I wanted to set up an interview at a company in Woburn, Massachusetts. Since I’m not in the habit of saying “no” to anyone who wants to interview me I jumped at the chance.

It didn’t take me along to realize this interview was for an entry level position. I know that because the email confirmation reminded me “business attire is required.” Then when the man called to _remind_ me of the interview he reiterated the need for business attire. No one needs to be told to wear business clothes to an interview do they? Apparently some must need such reminders!

Monday I went to Mass and spent some time with Tim before heading to my inlaws to spend the night. The interview was at 9a. I thought it would be better if I left from Everett than from here so I wouldn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn. Agnes made me a good breakfast then I went on my way.

Of course I got stuck in traffic the whole way there. I found this odd because I was going against the traffic but Boston traffic is what it is so I dealt with it with as little frustration as I could muster. I was getting a little worried I’d be late but I got there in enough time so I was happy.

I walked into the office and saw there were four other people sitting in a conference room. I was sent in to sit with them then another person came in making it a total of six persons. We all sat there, quite as church mice, not engaging each other or making eye contact. I was at the higher end of the age range though there were two people who I couldn’t figure out how old they were. The rest were early to mid 20s.

The manager came in and gave us a ten minute talk about what position we were applying for, what the company did, and what our pay would be. It’s a commission based job selling mutual funds and life insurance. Because the company “cares” about it employees they give a salary of $10,000 until the employee builds up their clientele enough to support themselves because the company doesn’t want the employee living in their car or starving. That works out to about $4.80 an hour. She told us to expect long hours and hard work in an extremely competitively environment (because she LOVES competition!) helping people plan their retirement and children’s college funds and that we will be depositing HER paycheck each week as an incentive to work harder so we can make the same amount of money as she does.

Then she said if we weren’t interested we could leave. Three of us got up and left. As I was walking out I asked her how she got my resume and she said she didn’t know that a recruiter in New York gave it too her. It was a that moment I made a promise to myself that if anymore recruiters call me I will ask more specific questions about how they got my resume, from where, what the job is for, and the salary.

When I first moved to Boston I had an interview like that- it was for one of those people that tries to get your to sign up to donate money to environmental causes, etc. on the street. I should have known something was up when 6 of us were interviewed and I was the only one who showed up in a suit. Hopefully you won’t have any more like that!

Annette: I wondered about the three that stayed too. Actually, I more wondered about the guy who was in this 30s-50s (one of those guys you can’t tell how old they are) that stayed. I understood with the early 20 somethings who stayed.

Taylor: I knew something was up but I didn’t realize it would be that bad. The lesson I took away was to ask more questions of the recruiters when they call.